Mulcair involved in setting up satellite offices: NDP MP

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair was likely among those involved in setting up a satellite office in Montreal that the Conservatives and Liberals charge violates parliamentary spending rules, an NDP MP suggested Tuesday.

Speaking in a brief interview with iPolitics, MP Guy Caron, who was chairman of the NDP’s Quebec caucus when the offices were set up, said it wasn’t only the leader’s office involved.

“Mr. Mulcair was also there,” Caron responded when it was pointed out that Mulcair was not leader of the party when the office was set up in August 2011. “He was Jack Layton’s Quebec lieutenant.”

“Mr. Mulcair is aware of the situation and will have the opportunity to explain Thursday,” he added when pressed about whether Mulcair took part in the decision to set up the offices.

Caron’s comments came as controversy continued to swirl in advance of Mulcair’s scheduled appearance Thursday before the procedure and house affairs committee to answer questions about the NDP’s decision to set up satellite offices in Montreal, Quebec City and Toronto.

Controversy over the offices erupted in March over the NDP’s proposal to set up a another satellite office in Saskatchewan.

On April 8, Speaker Andrew Scheer revealed the Board of Internal Economy, which governs the use of House of Commons resources, was investigating the NDP’s office in Montreal, where the rent was paid by the party but the employees paid through MPs budgets.

The board also ordered the NDP to put a halt to the practice of having employees paid by the House of Commons working in an office that shared space with a political party.

Mulcair has maintained that the NDP has done nothing wrong and that the House of Commons approved the arrangement. The NDP has said the employees were tasked with working to help MPs in their constituencies.

Caron was among the MPs who agreed to help pay the salaries of the employees working for the Quebec caucus.

Tuesday, Caron said the employees work for the Quebec caucus, not for individual MPs or even directly for the MPs who agreed to share the cost of their salaries.

“They are employees who work in the Montreal office who do parliamentary work.”

One MP however, pointed out Tuesday she was pressured by the NDP to participate in the plan.
Lise St-Denis, who was elected under the NDP banner but jumped to the Liberal Party in January 2012, issued a statement Tuesday suggesting that the creation of the satellite offices played a role in her decision to leave the New Democrats.

“Madame St-Denis, who was then a member of the New Democratic caucus, refused to pay the sums the NDP was asking for, for the creation of this satellite office. Despite pressure from personnel in the NDP leader’s office, the MP persisted in her refusal to participate in the creation of this office. After that, Madame St-Denis decided to quit the NDP to join the Liberal Party of Canada.”

Caron, however, refused to comment on St-Denis’ allegation.

“That is her interpretation of things and Madame St-Denis is no longer part of the NDP caucus so she is free to (say) what she wants. It is her version of things and it happened in caucus so there is nobody who is going to comment on what happens in caucus.”

The controversy over the satellite offices was a focus of debate as the procedure and house affairs committee met Tuesday morning. After Question Period, Mulcair was grilled by reporters over the contents of documents prepared by the House of Commons for the committee that were leaked to reporters – particularly the revelation that an NDP official assured House of Commons officials that the employees would be working in Ottawa.

“If you look at the forms, we’ve respected the rules every step of the way. Those staff have to report to someone and in the case of the NDP, they were reporting to Ottawa staff. We were doing something different. We were setting up our offices to do great work in Quebec for the new MPs and we were pooling resources. So if you listen to the Liberals and the Conservatives tell it, what we should have been doing is shipping them from Ottawa down to Montreal every single time we had somebody take care of a press conference.”

Mulcair said the parliamentary staff and the political staff might have worked in the same office but they are so separate that they even belong to two separate unions.

While the NDP was following the rules, the Conservatives and Liberals got together to change the rules, Mulcair said.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau muddied the waters further by suggesting the employees hired by MPs were selling NDP membership cards out of the satellite offices – an allegation that NDP officials deny.

“We hear that it’s an office that offered, memberships…That is contrary to the use of parliamentary resources to sell memberships, sell subscriptions to a political party in a parliamentary office.”

While Trudeau said he is looking forward to hearing Mulcair’s testimony, he said there is a long tradition in Parliament of not using parliamentary budgets for political party purposes.

“Misallocation of or misuse of public funds is always an extremely serious matter. It has been a longstanding rule in this place that there is a division between parliamentary work and partisan work and that has been very, very clear for an awfully long time.”

NDP officials have not yet responded to questions from iPolitics about what role Mulcair played in setting up the satellite office in Montreal.

Well as noted on another media outlet today – thus far you have 1 Liberal and 1 Conservative senator charged to date and of course Liberal Senator Lavigne charged, found guilty and jailed. Here it is alleged that the entire NDP Quebec Caucus and the party’s leadership conspired to defraud parliament. And we haven’t even got to the million plus dollars of mailers that were allegedly sent for partisan political purposes. Couple this with the NDP’s past problems with Union funding and I think there’s quite a hole been blasted in the Dippers ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude.

When are they all going to be able to claim a holier-than-thou attitude? Why can’t we have some of that in this despicable excuse for what we have to vote for? Why do we keep racing to the bottom in this country. It makes me puke!

UH OH !!!!! straight to the top ! ouch – He should write a cheque for 3 million pay the tax payer back and apologize now – the longer this goes on the more the soft progressive vote in the NDP will go to the Liberals – which would be crazy because right now that is the real battle brewing – next election the will be no ABC, no talk of merging, no talk of coooperation or ridiculous strategic voting which is what Harper is counting on – next election will be a clear choice – if you want to get rid of Harper you have to make up your mind on who you think can take him on! – thing is neither Trudeau or Mulcair look like viable alternative right now – Conservative scandal about paying 90,000 tax dollars back to millions missing by Federal and Provincial Liberals and the NDP in the same smelly boat – makes you wonder?

Ha-ha, the banal, corrupted Liberal/Con parties are loving this. A little bit of their corruption got on the NDP, oy vey they’ve been sullied, corruption in politics is an equal opportunity right these days. Let’s face it tho, the Cons/Liberals embrace very similar economic, monetary, regulatory, and foreign policies. They’re elitists, and they know what’s right for everyone and everything. Will this bit of dirt change my voting mind, not very likely, the illusion of choice so carefully crafted by the the 2 parties will still play a big part in the shallow Canadian’s mind. The 2 parties who have been surrounded by the sleazy money types do nothing but continue everything in pursuit of their own power. It goes without saying working on behalf of Canadians is a thing of the past. The abuse of the taxpayer continues on and really this government is the kind of permanent government that doesn’t get affected by election choices because it isn’t in any way accountable to any sort of democratic transparency and just creates a world of on its own. Thankfully, they don’t own me.

Okay, I get it. The Senate scandal is going to be taking a toll on both the illegitimate Harper government and the 3rd party Liberals so they needed something to fill the media with besides their derelict senators. Here we have it. So now all the top political parties are scandal laden let’s sincerely hope the Greens benefit from that problem or some outstanding Independent MPs. We are so badly served by these political parties. They even know how to make themselves look worse and worse everyday.